


Missing You

by DarthTella



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Introspection, Loneliness, Romance, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-20 11:54:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30004482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarthTella/pseuds/DarthTella
Summary: Tentoo has been without Rose for three days and can't wait to see her again.
Relationships: Metacrisis Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	Missing You

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt fic for Gingerteaandsympathy over on Tumblr

Three days. It had been a full seventy-two hours since he’d seen Rose before she was sent off on a UNIT field mission without him.

If it hadn’t been for a failed medical exam, he would have been able to join Rose and the rest of the field team. He was apparently harbouring a flu virus that could have flared up at any point during the mission. A flu virus that hadn’t made him so much as sneeze since it was detected; a tribute to the fact he still had his amazing Time Lord immune system working in his favour. He attempted to plead that case that he was completely healthy and would stay that way, but it was all to no avail. These regulations were quite rigid in regard to health and safety.

As much as he wanted to rant and rail against someone for this absolute injustice, he couldn’t find it in him to be mad at the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Williams, or the new attending doctor who just happened to be this universe’s own Martha Jones. They had both proved themselves capable doctors in their own right and the Doctor even considered them friends. They also never looked at him as if he were some sort of freak due to his unusual origins as some former doctors at UNIT had done. So, hearing that he couldn’t join Rose on what sounded to be an exciting mission that involved possible first contact with an alien species was absolutely devastating to him, but he had no choice but to accept their judgement and stay behind.

That wasn’t to say he didn’t want to convince Rose not to go, but he also understood that her role was crucial to this mission succeeding. She was by far the best negotiator UNIT had and the Doctor was convinced she stopped a good handful of wars from breaking out. Still, on the morning of her departure, he gave her the tightest hug possible and told her to do the Earth proud. And after a kiss that was far too short in his opinion, Rose was deployed on her mission. 

Being alone, however, was not something he was particularly good at. He found himself accepting Jackie’s invitation to dinner one night, but all her fretting didn’t help his state of mind one bit. Jackie strangely didn’t seem to be worried about Rose’s safety since she had with her Jake and Amy – who just happened to be Dr. Williams’ wife who had recently replaced Mickey on the team. It was the Doctor Jackie fretted over. He was barraged by questions about how he was doing, and Jackie kept insisting on taking his temperature and forcing chicken noodle soup down his throat due to a flu that wasn’t even affecting him.

In short: he was certain Jackie was going to mother him to death if he hadn’t gotten out of there.

He went back to the flat after that, but without Rose there it was an extremely lonely place. It was too quiet without her voice, or the sounds of her pottering around. He tried to sleep in their bed, but it felt entirely too empty and cold. Her scent lingered on the sheets, but that only punctuated the fact that she wasn’t there to hold him. The idea of changing the linins crossed his mind, but they were already quite fresh, and he knew his keen senses would still detect her imprint.

Besides, he still didn’t need to sleep as much as a bog-standard human. He could just nap in his armchair in the lounge until Rose returned.

His one little bit of solace was the growing piece of TARDIS coral he had planted in an old fish tank he found in a junkyard off of Totters Lane – a place that held so much nostalgia in his heart and one he was amazed to find existing in this parallel world. The coral was still too young for proper telepathic communication, but it’s hum in the back of his mind helped keep some of the loneliness at bay. He kept himself busy caring for the coral, thoroughly cleaning the tank, and adjusting the pH of the soil for optimum growth. The Doctor would ramble on, regardless if the coral understood his words or not. He talked about how TARDISes were grown back on Gallifrey, the exact molecular makeup of the soil he was spreading into the bottom of the tank, and how the coral would find nourishment in the plant matter he spread on top of the soil. Hours went by without him noticing and if it weren’t for the reminder app Rose had installed on his phone he wouldn’t have remembered to eat regularly since he was so engrossed with working on the coral. He couldn’t help but smile fondly at the contents of the fridge when he finally stopped for a break. Rose had stocked it up with his favourites before she left.

That tiny little gesture meant more to him than he expected. He found it was all the little seemingly inconsequential things they did for each other that made the most impact on their relationship. While eating, he began to think up ways he could reciprocate Rose’s kindness in this matter.

After another terribly restless night, he had finally received a call from Pete that Rose’s zeppelin had landed with everyone all safe and sound. Still, his anxiousness wouldn’t be eliminated until he saw her again.

The debriefing seemed to be taking forever as did the total radio silence during the mission. He’d been sitting in their car waiting for her for nearly two hours now. There was nothing stopping him from walking right into UNIT HQ and meeting her outside the conference room, but he wanted to surprise her by driving her home. He had parked in a spot where Rose would be able to see him right away.

The minutes ticked by slowly. The Doctor had already gone through all the radio stations five times over trying to find something to listen to that was somewhat calming. He was thinking of cracking open the book he brought with him, but as soon as he went to reach for it there was a flash of something red in his peripheral vision. Quickly looking over, he saw Amy exiting the building, her long ginger hair glinting in the morning sun. The Doctor’s heartbeat picked up. If Amy was here, then surely…

His heart leapt as Rose emerged next followed by Jake and the Doctor couldn’t help but mirror Rose’s wide smile as she and Amy seemed to be in the middle of an animated conversation. But then, the Doctor realised he had a problem on his hands: Rose was walking in the complete opposite direction he had expected her too! Perhaps Jake or Amy had offered her a ride home. It was certainly possible as the Doctor had originally dropped Rose off, and she didn’t have a car there to drive.

There was only one thing for it. He honked the horn. Four little beeps. None of them paid attention and kept walking. Desperately he leaned on the horn.

That got their attention. There seemed to be some confusion amongst them as to where the noise had come from. Then Amy locked eyes with him and sighed dramatically.

“Shoulda known it was you, ya numpty!” She called out, her Scottish brough coming out stronger than normal. Jake also turned and laughed, nudging Rose in the right direction.

Rose’s face broke out into the widest grin the Doctor had ever seen. After a rushed farewell to her friends, she sprinted to the car and leapt into the passenger’s seat. The angle was quite awkward, but Rose wasted no time in throwing her arms around the Doctor and holding him tight.

“Did you miss me?” She asked, breathlessly.

“Nah.” The Doctor laughed.

“You’re such a liar!” Rose chuckled smacking his shoulder before pulling back a bit to see the cheeky grin on his face.

“Yup!” He nodded before pulling her back towards him and kissing her soundly on the lips. The feeling of her soft, warm lips moulding around his chased all his anxiety away. Rose responded enthusiastically turning his somewhat chaste kiss into a full-blown snog. The Doctor, forgetting they were in the front seat of a relatively small car, started encouraging Rose to move to sit on his lap, but in so doing accidentally leaned on the horn once more. They broke apart with a gasp and a hearty laugh when they remembered where they were.

The laughter of two other people broke into their little bubble, and they turned to see Amy and Jake standing nearby. Jake let out a loud wolf whistle while Amy made mock gagging sounds and cried for them to get a room.

“What do you think? Shall we get a room?” Rose asked, her voice pitched low in a way that stirred something deep in the Doctor’s gut. He leaned back over and nudged his nose against hers.

“Well, this car is sort of roomy if you ignore the fact tha—”

Rose cut him off the best way she knew how by sealing her lips over his. The Doctor cried out in surprise when she reached over and relined his seat as far back as it would go but giggled in delight when she did the same with hers.

“Anyone could walk by you know.” The Doctor laughed, not making any move to stop Rose from unbuttoning the top buttons of his shirt and getting a head start on giving him a love bite.

“Don’t care,” she sighed, “I just missed you so much.” This time, the Doctor did gently halt her movements. Rose grunted in protest but moved so she could look at him properly.

The Doctor said nothing for a long moment as he reached out and smoothed Rose’s hair from her face.

“I missed you too,” he murmured bringing her hand up to his lips and kissing her knuckles gently. “Let’s go home.” Rose nodded before she reluctantly sat up and fixed her seat. The Doctor however stayed reclined.

“Unless you want to ravish me right here and now in this rather public car park. You know I never realised you were such an exhibitionist.” He smirked at her. Rose once again reached for his seat controls and sat him up.

“Drive.” Rose commanded, her eyes twinkling and full of promises.


End file.
